(no this isn't our street)
Autumn is here in full color. The trees that avenue our street are bright red.
 I miss everyone here and wanted to take a break and come and say hello.  My brain is a little on tilt with writing, but I am fairly pleased with the progress.  Little stories have come up from time to time. I would think to myself. "Oh, I need to blog about that." Then the tyranny of time and work would take over and it would pass.
This morning my husband told me of a little story. This I had to tell you.
My husband went to a little cafe for a morning meeting that didn't really happen this morning. He sat and waited for the person he hoped to see, but he never came. He spent the time praying and reading and watching the people around him.
A woman was sitting at a table with her son.  He was about ten or eleven years old,  and was sitting in her lap.  He held her tightly around the neck as they talked. They were starting their day with breakfast there, and it was really obvious to everyone, that this was a wonderful mom, whose son loved her dearly.
After a bit, someone she knew came up to her and started chatting. "See you at church." was the final bit of the conversation. The waitress, who had been watching this scene, came up to the mother. "Where do you go to church?" she asked. The woman told her. Out came a piece of paper and pencil. "And what time do you meet? the waitress asked, and wrote down the answer. That was it. A perfect example of unintentional, intentional, lifestyle evangelism.
That woman wasn't trying to evangelize anyone. But she was demonstrating the value of Christ based parenting in front of the world. I don't know if this little cafe is a regular place for this mom to come, or if this was a special once off time. Which ever it was, Jesus showed up.What this mother had, this waitress wanted.
What kind of unintentional, intentional Christianity shows up in your life when you are just living your day to day life? Are you habitually walking in the Light, as a child of Light in this really dark dark world?  If you are, then you may barely recognize the beam of brilliant light that is shining from you to those around you.
Shine Jesus Shine.

I have a fear. It is the fear of failure in very old age. There is longevity in my genes, and I anticipate a long life. The very idea of embarrassing the Lord who saved me as I grow old, is something I passionately don't want any part of.

Muriel is a lady in her nineties. She and her husband were missionaries for many years. A widow now, her face is still a ring of smiles, the lines on her face have grown to accommodate that. Her bright blue eyes and white hair sparkle. Burt was a musician. Burt played the organ and Muriel the piano at the little Chapel we used to go to on Sundays. When Burt went to be with Jesus, Muriel kept playing. She still gives music lessons. The children in the church play instruments and when it is time for them to do their ministry of song, she encourages each one with a gladsome heart. Muriel, was one of the original Tupperware ladies. Newspaper articles have been written about her. Muriel has crowds of people over to her house every Sunday after church. She makes little place cards and has intricate rules as to where people are to sit. Singles are never permitted to sit on the end of the table. Young people are always to sit next to the older ones. Young wives and husbands were to sit near to the older couples. Everyone brings food, but Muriel still does a bit of the cooking. Everything gets saved in Tupperware containers. The conversation is always about the Lord. She tells inspiring stories about her life, and asks questions that keep things lively, but always as it relates to the Lord. She is an expert at  "provoking one another to love and good works."
I want to be a Muriel when I am old.

Miriam was a great woman in Israel. She had watched over her baby brother while he was cradled in the Nile. As an Egyptian princess discovered him, she was quick and intelligent in her response, even going to so far as to make a suggestion to royalty. She had begun early in her leadership abilities. We see her as a much older woman as she grabbed her tamborine and danced before the people on the other side of the Red Sea..  There were about 2 -3 million Jews who went through and she lead the women as a part of the celebration response to the victory that God gave them. What she sang is called "The Song of the Sea". She and her two brothers were credited with leading this vast population of God's people. She was a prophetess, one of only a very few women so described in Scripture.
But Miriam didn't finish well. When the meek and much loved Moses, the ordained leader of God's people is widowed. he took as his second wife, a dark skinned Cushite (Ethiopian), and Miriam objected. She was jealous of her own position and questioned the authority of Moses. She began a whispering campaign that led her brother Aaron into the scheme. She was a proud Jewish woman, with a not so subtle racism. Miriam felt that she had as much right to lead the people as anybody. She instigated a rebellion. Ultimately she questioned God's authority, something satan once did which led to the misery of the ages. The Lord had to respond. He ordered the three of them outside where the pillar of cloud awaited them. There He struck Miriam with leprosy.
Proud Miriam. Proud, disgraced Miriam. Piper suggests that God's response is "Okay, you like white skin, you get white skin. How do you like this white skin." Of course God didn't say that, but it could be implied. And Miriam had white leprosy, as white as snow. It is a shame for her to even show her face. Aaron then went in repentance and implored Moses to intercede on their sister's behalf. It is profound to me that it isn't Miriam that does this, but her brother. Five little words later, and she is healed. "O Lord, make her well." Moses doesn't weep and go on for hours, he just said five little words. The Lord, who is still very angry, healed her but told them, that as a Father, He must discipline her. And for seven days she remained outside the camp she so longed to lead.  She is unclean, an outcast. Everyone knew it. The whole two million of them knew it and waited. They waited an entire week before they could move on towards the Promised Land. I can only imagine the whispering and fear that must have rippled through the camp those seven days.
We never hear anything else about Miriam until she dies. It is believed that Miriam lived another thirty-eight years wandering the desert. Then we are told, she died, in a desert place where there was no water. The result of her life which started in a story about the water of the Nile, and included a "Song of the Sea", ended in the dust just a few short months away from the Land of Plenty.
I don't want to be a Miriam.
I want to be a Muriel. I want to be an on-my-knees in the morning, humble servant with rings of smile-wrinkles welcoming everyone to supper. 

I have been finishing up the Last Battle, the last in the series of the Chronicles of Narnia. I just love it. I read it just before going to bed. It is my going-to-bed reading, as opposed to my, at-the-office reading, or my cozy-up book. Last night came the part where everything in Narnia is dissolved. Father Time squeezes the moon and sun together and time and the universe are no more. The stars have melted away. Everyone stands inside the door and Peter, the high King is commanded by Aslan the Great Lion to close the door. Peter closes the door with a frigid hand and turns to see the sun shining, the grass gloriously sweet and green, the trees dripping with fruit to last an eternity. "Higher up and further in", Aslan commands them all. In other words, this is just the beginning.  There is so much more to see higher up in the mountains of His Country and further into the Realm of His glory.
It is very much like the place we shall be, the place the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare for us, if we know and trust Him alone as our Lord and Savior. It is CS Lewis' telling of it.
My darling husband had a cousin go "Home" last week. She was young to be flung out into eternity, leaving a husband, children and grandchildren wondering what happened. She died in the misery of cancer, but with the sure and certain  hope of an eternity of peace and beauty and the Presence always of the Savior. We will see her again there, sooner than we all will realize it.
We had a wonderful prayer conference at the church this weekend. The special speaker was a man who confessed considerable physical weakness, ill for some years with a dread disease. To see the Spirit of the Lord poured out and through such a man, blessed us to no end. His call was for deeper cleansing, so that we could have those "know so" rather than "hope so" kind of answers to prayer. He called us to more than confession of sin, but deep acknowledgment and repentance from sin. We were to examine our lives carefully, to go deeper in than we are used to, to let the Spirit of the Lord reveal those areas of sin, ( compromises, attitudes, habits, resentments, etc) that He wanted us to be free of, so that His power could be freed up to answer our mountain moving prayers. After all, God is a holy God, requiring holiness from His children. It was a "higher up and further in" kind of call.
It was a shock to me, when the Lord began opening up my heart to the areas of sin in my life. I filled a piece of paper as I began to write down what He was telling me. I confess that at the beginning of the time it was an exercise and nothing more.  I really did not  think I would find all that much. At first it was startling, then it was humbling and then, as I continued to write, there were tears in my eyes, and a dawning joy in my heart. There was a deep cleansing going on, and I didn't even realize just how much I needed it. It was proof of the Love of God for me.
The old Victorians used to speak of the "Deeper Life." That concept just became more real to me this weekend. I rejoice that the message from this weekend's speaker was a "further in and higher up" kind of call. It was not Aslan, but the Lord Jesus calling me to get ready for that day when the stars will melt away and the door will be closed. When time ceases to exist, and we live in the constant, eternal blessing of the Presence of the LORD.
Ed's cousin will have a short head start on us, but we will see her there.
I personally, can't wait.